Defence fear for flood-risk homes
Defence fear for flood-risk homes
Residents in up to 2,000 properties along the Humber estuary could be left to defend their own homes against rising sea levels, a report has warned. The Environment Agency has admitted some areas will not be protected as it develops a strategy to manage flooding over the next century.
The report includes a planned £320m investment, but says there may not be enough money to maintain some defences. There will be losers as well as winners, the report states. Last summer Hull and many communities along the estuary were badly hit by flooding after torrential rain.
Agency officials have been working on the basis sea levels will rise by up to 0.3m in the next 50 years and up to a metre over the next century. Phillip Winn, the Environment Agency's manager for the Humber estuary project, said there were "some difficult decisions to make".
The agency can only raise flood defences to maintain existing walls where there is a "real justification for doing so", he explained. Areas where defences are unlikely to be improved, after 10 years, include Kilnsea, Sunk Island, Paull, Hessle and North Ferriby as well as the south bank areas of Alkborough and Goxhill.
Sea levels are expected to rise by a metre over the next 100 years
The report states: "The national flood defence budget is limited, so we can only maintain or improve defences where there is a good business case for doing so. "The defences we can't improve will deteriorate and in due course fail, unless others are willing to take on the responsibility of managing them.
Klik hier voor het hele artikel
©BBC | Gewijzigd: 24 april 2017, 10:42 uur, door Joyce.s
Residents in up to 2,000 properties along the Humber estuary could be left to defend their own homes against rising sea levels, a report has warned. The Environment Agency has admitted some areas will not be protected as it develops a strategy to manage flooding over the next century.
The report includes a planned £320m investment, but says there may not be enough money to maintain some defences. There will be losers as well as winners, the report states. Last summer Hull and many communities along the estuary were badly hit by flooding after torrential rain.
Agency officials have been working on the basis sea levels will rise by up to 0.3m in the next 50 years and up to a metre over the next century. Phillip Winn, the Environment Agency's manager for the Humber estuary project, said there were "some difficult decisions to make".
The agency can only raise flood defences to maintain existing walls where there is a "real justification for doing so", he explained. Areas where defences are unlikely to be improved, after 10 years, include Kilnsea, Sunk Island, Paull, Hessle and North Ferriby as well as the south bank areas of Alkborough and Goxhill.
Sea levels are expected to rise by a metre over the next 100 years
The report states: "The national flood defence budget is limited, so we can only maintain or improve defences where there is a good business case for doing so. "The defences we can't improve will deteriorate and in due course fail, unless others are willing to take on the responsibility of managing them.
Klik hier voor het hele artikel
©BBC | Gewijzigd: 24 april 2017, 10:42 uur, door Joyce.s
